Running knows best

Why do I do this to myself?  Why do I toss aside the one thing that I need most when things get stressful?

Running.

This week was crazy.  It was chaotic and everyday felt too long and too hard.  And I believe the moment I allowed my running to go by the wayside, that’s when things felt suddenly too big.  On Friday, I hauled my very tired self into work and, upon entering the building, fumbled with my umbrella.  SPLAT – a big fat raindrop hit me in the forehead.

Queue lump in throat.  Seriously?  I’m suddenly THAT fragile?

Fortunately, I packed my bag with a steadfast plan to run at lunch.  I had the time blocked off and I refused to over think it.  So what if I hadn’t run all week?  It would be easy to continue sliding into yet another run-less day, and so on….  Of course I wondered if my legs would remember what to do after four days and miraculously, my legs remembered what to do after four days.  I was pleasantly surprised when I glanced at my Garmin early on and saw –

I didn’t feel like I was working that hard, but those were some good numbers staring up at me.  Cool, the legs are cooperating.  But I knew I had a long run with Scott the next morning, so I pulled back –

Riggghhttt.  Fail on the pull back.  OK, this time I was going to pull back for real –

So, there’s that.  Fortunately, it’s not like I was throwing down 7’s (in my dreams) and I honestly felt so energized that the run felt effortless.  I guess that’s my reward for inviting running back into the fold.  The moral of the story is this; don’t stop running. Ever.

The End.